Global electric power demand returns to pre-pandemic levels
Source: Washington Post
Climate and Environment
Global electric power demand returns to pre-pandemic levels
Carbon dioxide emissions rose above 2019 levels as electricity demand outpaced growth in renewables in the first half of this year, putting climate goals further out of reach
By Steven Mufson
Today at 8:15 a.m. EDT
Carbon dioxide emissions from the global electric power sector rebounded in the first half of 2021 to above pre-pandemic levels, according to an analysis, signaling that the world has failed to engineer a “green recovery” and shift decisively away from fossil fuels.
As electricity demand jumped from last year’s lows, the London-based think tank Ember found, it outpaced the growth of renewable energy. That pushed global electricity-related emissions 5 percent above where they stood before the coronavirus outbreak.
The new findings have major implications for the upcoming U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, where negotiators hope to forge a pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions and keep the planet from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to preindustrial levels. They also suggest that a surge in electric vehicles, which President Biden and many other world leaders support, will tax the electricity grid as developers work to add wind and solar.
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The Energy Information Administration, part of the Energy Department, forecast that the U.S. economic recovery and a changing fuel mix would lead to a “significant increase in energy-related carbon dioxide emissions this year.” The EIA in its August short-term energy outlook said that after tumbling 11 percent in 2020, the U.S. power sector’s carbon dioxide emissions would increase by 7 percent this year and an additional 1 percent in 2022.
EIA acting administrator Steve Nalley said then that “despite significant growth in energy-related CO2 emissions as the U.S. economy opens up, we don’t see these emissions returning to pre-pandemic levels, at least in the short term.”
China’s economy is the only major economy to experience an increase in greenhouse gas emissions last year, according to the Ember report. Based on preliminary data, the group estimated that China’s greenhouse gas emissions increased by 1.7 percent in 2020.
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Alicia Chen in Tapei contributed to this report.
By Steven Mufson
Steven Mufson covers the business of climate change for The Washington Post. Since joining The Post in 1989, he has covered economic policy, China, diplomacy, energy and the White House. Earlier, he worked for The Wall Street Journal. In 2020, he shared the Pulitzer Prize for a climate change series "2C: Beyond the Limit." Twitter https://twitter.com/StevenMufson
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/08/24/global-climate-change/
JBoushka Retweeted
https://twitter.com/JBoushka
At the peak of lockdowns in China & U.S. 2020 there was hope because CO2 emissions plummeted & it seemed possible to envision fighting #ClimateChange.
But now? It's worse than ever.
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